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Why did astrology decline in Byzantium by the end of the 6th century?
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astrology
Zodiac wheel showing the 12 astrological constellations or signs from an illumination of the poem Breviari d'Amour, Catalan (Spain), late 14th century; in the collection of the British Library.
By the end of the 6th century, the practice of astrology in the Byzantine Empire experienced a significant decline due to two primary factors:
- Intellectual Decline: The Byzantine Empire underwent a general deterioration of its intellectual life during this period.1
- Religious Opposition: There was strong opposition to the discipline within Christianity, which viewed the mechanistic nature of astrology—often seen as denying divine intervention and human free will—as incompatible with orthodox doctrine.12
These combined pressures virtually obliterated the practice by the close of the 6th century, though it was later revived in the 8th and 9th centuries through translations from Syriac and Arabic sources.1